An Incredible Journey of Discover - Five College Birthright Israel Trip

‘An incredible journey of discovery’
Five Colleges Birthright Israel trip helps form Jewish identities

By Stacey Dresner
Published: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 8:42 PM EST

 
 
AMHERST -- At the end of January, Avigail Shapira, IACT Israel Fellow for the Hillel House of the University of Massachusetts Hillel, and Mara Seidel, JCSC fellow, were sitting in the UMass campus center when a group of students came up and greeted them enthusiastically.

These students had been among the 78 Five College students who had participated in January’s Taglit-Birthright Israel trip to Israel from Jan. 6-16, led by University of Massachusetts Amherst Hillel House.

“A lot of them just passing by came by and gave us hugs. And apparently a group of 20 of them decided to go out to dinner together the night before. These were people who didn’t know each other three weeks ago,” said Shapira, marveling at the community-building powers of the Birthright Israel program.

The bulk of the students who went on the Taglit-Birthright Israel trip in January were from UMass Amherst, while some came from Smith College, Amherst College, Hampshire College and Mount Holyoke.

UMass staff staffed the trip n one bus was led by Seidel and Rabbi Saul Perlmutter, director of UMass HIllel and Mara Seidel. The other bus was staffed by Abigail Kulick, UMass Hillel’s assistant director and Shapira. Rabbi Bruce Bromberg Seltzer, HIllel director of Amherst College and Smith College also accompanied the group for the first couple of days.

An intense 10 days

Taglit-Birthright Israel, launched in 2000 and funded by Jewish communities, the Israeli government and several Jewish philanthropists takes Diaspora Jews ages 18-26 on a free, educational peer trip to Israel. With Taglit-Birthright Israel trips occurring all year long, nearly 150,000 young Jews have traveled to Israel through the Birthright Israel program.

UMass Hillel, which usually takes a group of students on Birthright Israel in January, last year for the first time took a group in the summer. UMass Hillel plans to take another group this coming summer.

Shapira called the trip in January “very intense.”

“You are led around Israel by Israelis. They get to meet Israelis and actually experience Israeli culture,” she said. “It is such an intense 10 days, you make friends for life.”

“The students who go on Birthright are students who have not been to Israel before on a group trip, so for many of them it is their first time,” Perlmutter added. “Also for many of them it is really their first intense involvement in anything Jewish or Israeli. So it is this incredible journey of discovery.”

Perlmutter said that many of the students who go on Birthright trips do not nave strong Jewish backgrounds, but that that doesn’t mean they are not open to learning more.

He told the story of one young woman on the trip who received word that a friend had died. Trying to console her, Perlmutter asked if she wanted to say Mourner’s Kaddish with the group and perhaps say a few words about her friend. Her peers on the Birthright trip were also asked if they wanted to say Kaddish with her.

“They all stood up and they all did it,” Perlmutter recalled. “It was just an incredibly powerful moment.”

Another moving moment was when 16 of the students had belated bar and bat mitzvahs on top of Massada. They all learned the Hebrew in a matter of days and did the aliyah blessings over the Torah and each of them read from the Torah.

“All of us were there and you could have heard a pin drop,” Perlmutter said.

These 16 were also asked to take on one new mitzvah. One said they would begin to light the Shabbat candles, another said they would visit a nursing home regularly, yet another said they would volunteer in some way to help the IDF.

Ten best days of my life’

“I can’t really say I have a “favorite” memory because the entire trip was just incredible,’ said Brandon Harris, 18, a freshman at UMass who went on the Birthright trip.

“My brother had gone on Birthright last year and I had read about the program at a Jewish Orientation at the UMass Hillel on the first day of school,” said Harris, who grew up in a Reform household and whose family attended Temple Shalom in Newton. “I wanted to go because I really wanted to go to Israel and learn about the country and my heritage.”

Harris says that the trip has had a profound affect on his Jewish identity.

“As I’ve told many people, before I came to Israel, I was never that observant of a Jew…However, after being in Israel for ten days, I really do have more of an appreciation for being Jewish. I’ve never been so proud of being Jewish and of my family’s heritage,” Harris said. “I credit that to finally going to Israel and on Birthright. Overall, it was probably some of the best ten days of my life and I encourage anyone who hasn’t gone and is still eligible to go because they’re missing out on a great opportunity.”

Dan Exter, 22, and a senior at UMass, was also brought up Reform, went to temple and Hebrew school, and was bar mitzvahed. Exter had known about the Birthright Israel program but heard about the Five Colleges trip from a friend.

“I always wanted to go on this trip and the time I went was perfect,” he said. “The whole experience was great, but parts of the trip that stick out most were seeing the sun rise on top of Massada, floating in the Dead Sea, and going to a Friday night service in Jerusalem.”

Dexter said that the trip has changed him.

“Yes, I feel this trip definitely affected my identity as a Jew. I feel that my identity has grown greatly as a Jew and I now know so much more about my people, my country, and have a greater knowledge of the history of our people.”

Perlmutter said that one of the goals of the trip to Israel is for the students to bond with Hillel staffers and to possibly become more involved with Hillel upon returning home -- leading to more Jewish involvement throughout the rest of their lives.

“These students could go on any Birthright trips. They don’t have to go on the UMass trip,” Perlmutter said. “The reason we all go with staff is that it is an incredibly wonderful time for us to bond with them and for them to see us in a different context from the office. So when we all return back on campus, they now feel we are almost peer friends as well as staff friends they can come and see. Now they will be comfortable coming. For us it is very important that this is not a one shot deal.”